LinkedIn Updates: Prospect Search Enhancements, Event Ads Features, and More

Summary

Podcast Summary: Social Media Marketing Talk Show

Episode: LinkedIn Updates: Prospect Search Enhancements, Event Ads Features, and More
Host: Jerry Potter (Social Media Examiner)
Guest: Judy Fox (LinkedIn Strategist)
Date: December 8, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the latest LinkedIn updates, including key platform growth stats, a major new AI-driven people search feature for prospecting, enhancements to LinkedIn Events and event ads, and insights from LinkedIn’s new small business growth report. Judy Fox and Jerry Potter discuss how these updates impact marketers and small businesses, emphasizing trends for 2026—especially how AI and networking are shaping success on LinkedIn.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. LinkedIn's Performance and Growth Metrics

(02:04–04:59)

• Revenue & Membership:

  • LinkedIn reported $18B in revenue; membership is up to 1.3 billion professionals.

• Engagement Increases:

  • Comments are up 24%, indicating more conversation rather than just posting.
  • Impressions on comments can now be viewed and reported, allowing brands to tie commenting strategies to business goals.

• Video Uploads:

  • Three consecutive quarters of double-digit growth in video uploads.
  • Caveat: Growth is about "uploads," not necessarily engagement or results (watch time not reported).

  Notable Quotes:

  • Judy Fox [02:31]: "Comments are up 24%. Brands and businesses are recognizing that it's a conversation that we have to have to grow our businesses."
  • Jerry Potter [03:17]: "There are people... getting more reach with their comments on other people's posts than they are on their own content."
  • Judy Fox [04:28]: "It's just talking about the data of what got put on the platform, not the results it got for people."

2. LinkedIn Small Business Growth Report: Video, AI, and Networking

(07:20–11:22)

• Small Business Creation is "Exploding":

  • 69% year-over-year growth in small business creation.

• Video as the New Language of Internet:

  • 79% of small businesses say video is now the language of the internet.
  • The hosts acknowledge this is part predictive ("hopeful language" from LinkedIn) and part data-driven.

• AI as a Growth Lever:

  • 54% of US small business leaders say AI is essential for their current growth.
  • 76% report AI is helping them compete with larger businesses.
  • LinkedIn predicts AI could unlock $1.6 trillion in productive capacity for US small businesses.

• Importance of Networking:

  • 73% of small businesses cite networking as essential, especially as AI content grows. Human connection becomes a differentiator.

  Notable Quotes:

  • Judy Fox [09:07]: "AI is now the number one growth lever for small businesses."
  • Jerry Potter [10:51]: "If video is the new language... it elevates trust. It lets people feel like they know somebody in a way a blog post never could."
  • Judy Fox [11:22]: “Definitely read that report... it does signal to your teams where you may want to put your dollars, your money, your time, your effort, next year.”

3. New AI-Driven People Search for Prospecting

(11:35–14:20)

• Feature Overview:

  • Live for US-based Premium users only (at time of episode).
  • Shift from exact keyword/job title searches to natural language queries—finds matches based on intent and inferred information.

• Implications:

  • Simplifies finding prospects and candidates.
  • Gives marketers the ability to describe their ideal contact in everyday language.
  • Especially beneficial for those who struggle making complex Boolean searches on LinkedIn.

  Notable Quotes:

  • Judy Fox [11:58]: "We're taking it from exact keywords and job titles and LinkedIn is now turning it into a natural language people search."
  • Judy Fox [13:07]: "Now you can talk about, 'I’m looking for people who used to work at this company who now have become founders in healthcare in New York City.'"
  • Jerry Potter [14:20]: "For some people, this might be the reason to upgrade to premium."

4. LinkedIn Events: New Tools, Ads, and Analytics

(14:36–16:19)

• New Features:

  • Enhanced tools for event promotion, audience targeting, and measuring event outcomes.
  • Integration with ON24 for event management and boosting.
  • Ability to link event registration directly to CRMs.

• Why it Matters:

  • Supports networking and trust-building, especially when paired with video—themes central to LinkedIn’s 2026 outlook.
  • Events offer social proof that's crucial in the AI era, as attendees validate trustworthiness by their presence.

• Measurement Cautions: Some of the feature claims are broad; data or detailed results have not yet been provided.

  Notable Quotes:

  • Jerry Potter [15:43]: "Events come with trust. From the social proof standpoint, that's something we have to factor in."
  • Judy Fox [16:19]: “Public conversations are going to convert to private conversations.”
  • Judy Fox [16:38]: “It can build better trust. That—back to the trust word. So, yes, I think the theme going into 2026 is trust.”

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Memorable Moments & Thematic Highlights

• Trust as a 2026 Theme:
  "The theme going into 2026 is trust." — Judy Fox [16:38]
• Practical Tip:
  If you're measuring results, look not just at what LinkedIn says is increasing (like uploads), but actual engagement and business outcomes.
• AI & Human Connection:
  Even as AI advances, networking and trust-building remain central.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:04–04:59] – LinkedIn growth data, comments, and video trends
• [07:20–11:22] – Analysis of LinkedIn’s small business report: AI, video, and networking insights
• [11:35–14:20] – AI-driven prospect search: natural language processing for better connections
• [14:36–16:19] – New LinkedIn Event features: promotion, measurement, and CRM integration
• [16:19–end] – Building trust in the age of AI; public vs. private conversations; episode conclusions

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Additional Resources & Where to Connect

• AI Marketing Masterclass: socialmediaexaminer.com/aitools
• Judy Fox on LinkedIn: Connect with Judy at “Judi Fox” (note the ‘I’ in Judi).

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For marketers and small business owners, this episode underscores not only the continuing AI-driven transformation of LinkedIn but also the enduring importance of human networking and trust in digital marketing for 2026.

Transcript

[Social Media Marketing World Announcer]

December isn't just about closing out 2025. It's about deciding what kind of marketer you'll be in 2026. Will you be reactive, always scrambling to catch up with algorithm changes and the AI tools? Or will you be visionary, the marketer who sees what's coming and prepares for it? That's why I created so Social Media Marketing World. Here's what Jennifer Morton said after attending quote it was solid gold. I spent an entire day organizing all of my notes and running everything through AI to help me come up with a fantastic game plan to move my business forward. Now, the marketing landscape in 2026 will reward the prepared head to social media marketing world.info right now. The decision you make this month will echo through all of 2026.

[Judy Fox]

Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Talk show, your guide to the ever changing world of social media.

[Jerry Potter]

All right, on today's show we're going to Explore the biggest LinkedIn updates, including a fascinating report that outlines exactly what's driving small business growth as we head into 2026. Also, a new AI driven prospecting tool. If you do a lot of NETWORKING with on LinkedIn, this could be very, very powerful. And if you use LinkedIn events, a powerful new update that you'll want to know about as well. My name is Jerry Potter, host of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a Social Media examiner production where we break down all the latest social media news and what it means for marketers like you. Today I'm joined by Judy Fox. Judy is a LinkedIn strategist and her course is called the LinkedIn Business Accelerator. Judy, welcome to the show.

[Judy Fox]

Excited to be here.

[Jerry Potter]

So, so let's talk first about what Microsoft calls Q1 because they do their year all different but the most recent quarter of performance. Microsoft owns LinkedIn. How is LinkedIn doing? Because as we're investing our time and money in it, we always want to know that it's a platform that is thriving and not, you know, plummeting. So what's the latest that you saw in that that stood out to you?

[Judy Fox]

Yes, and I agree numbers give more certainty in business. So to see a 10% year over year increase in their just growth of their business financially. They have had 18 billion in revenue this year. Membership is now 1.3 billion professionals B with a billion.

And it's just great to see the engagement and activity going up. Comments are up 24%. A lot of times the past we focused on posting and I really love to see that comments are increasing because brands and businesses are Recognizing that it's a conversation that we have to have to grow our businesses. And LinkedIn is now letting us see the impressions that our comments are making. How many people are actually viewing your comments is a great business tool that can be reported internally now. Yeah, and, yeah, and they've been able to say they have three consecutive quarters of double digigit growth in video uploads. That is really strong.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, we know. And of course LinkedIn said upload video and people said, okay, we know how to, we're listening now. And the comment thing is no joke. I mean, I know people that are getting more reach with their comments on other people's posts than they are on their own content. And obviously they impact each other. But you know, there are people who, you know, maybe they've got decent reach, they're reaching 500 or a thousand people per post, but then they go and leave a comment and it stands out and it reaches 10,000 people because that post reached a hundred thousand people or something like that. So.

[Judy Fox]

Yeah. And the business case, if you can now point to your numbers as a financial link between we got a lot more impressions on commenting as a brand and a business, then that is the case to lean into creating a commenting guideline, a plan and a strategy for commenting.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, I love that. Now one thing we always have to remember is these reports come directly from the company, from the platform. And they're not making it up, obviously in terms of the numbers because people can, you know, have ways of checking them for the most part. But does this feel on par, like what they're reporting, this optimism, does that feel on par to what you feel as someone who spends time and consults people on LinkedIn?

[Judy Fox]

I love that. And I think as a brand and as LinkedIn, the company wants to put their best foot forward. The only thing I'll note, and this is a little hot take here, is, is they chose to talk about how it was double digit growth in video uploads. That does not necessarily say the results those uploads got for people, just the physical uploads. So if you notice, it's just talking about the data of what got put on the platform, not the results it got for people.

[Jerry Potter]

In other words, they didn't say watch time was up.

[Judy Fox]

Correct. They did not say the engagement on videos are up. They did not say there's, there's a choice there. And so sometimes it's the information that's missing that we may want to just make a little note asterisks and consider that.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, no That's a great point. And hopefully as marketers, we're testing for ourselves to see what it works. And I'm sure some people are having great success with videos and also hear from others that are struggling with it. And it's, I feel like with LinkedIn we've gone through that initial, like everybody's going to get lots of reach to the, it's settling down now and it's kind of figuring things out, like, what are we going to show and what are we going to not show?

[Judy Fox]

So don't have video FOMO just yet.

[Jerry Potter]

Like, okay, yeah, well put. All right. LinkedIn also just released a report about how AI is surging for business growth. Like, especially for small businesses, not just AI businesses, but all businesses that are growing is partially because of AI. So we're going to share this report with you here in just a second. But if you're already using AI and you feel like you're just scratching the surface, I mean, don't we all feel like that? If you want to discover what separates AI experts from beginners, we've got a special free masterclass with Dan Sanchez, who's the AI marketing specialist at Social Media Examiner. And it's coming up on Tuesday, December 9th at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern. He's going to show seven essential AI tools, including research tools for instant market insights, video creation without a camera, which just as a phrase is amazing. You know, you think about if 10 years ago it'd be like, oh yeah, you make video without a camera, visual design that gets clicks, custom audio solutions for branded content. The free session is perfect for you. If you're a marketer who wants to do more with AI, if you're a content creator struggling to keep up and anyone wanting to stay ahead in the AI landscape so you can register for free, I'm going to give you the link. It's social media examiner.com aitools okay. Social mediaexaminer.com aitools if you can't make it live, sign up anyway. You can get the recording. Social mediaexaminer.com aitools so LinkedIn did release this report about what is fueling small business growth. And I always have to remind myself, as a nearly a solopreneur myself, that small businesses is like you can still have a hundred employees or it might even be higher than that, still considered a small business. So what were some of the things in this report? I think there were three key insights you wanted to talk about, Judy. So what was the first one?

[Judy Fox]

Yes, so first, this report was just published. It's published on December 3rd. So if you're thinking December 3rd, 2025. Yeah, but it is talking about their predictions in a way, saying how small businesses can win in 2026. So I definitely see that as the predictive language of LinkedIn, what they want to happen. So that makes this report really valuable to read because it's telling you we're going to try to tell you what we want on LinkedIn. Okay, so they're saying that small business creation is exploding, that it's been up 69 year over year. And 79 of small businesses are saying video is the new language of the Internet. Again, that is hopeful language. But if, if that tells you anything, plan for more video and obviously attend the amazing event coming up to learn about how to do video without a camera. Is that what the pitch was or. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Jerry Potter]

So let me get this right, though. So you're saying, I mean, obviously they did a study, right? That's where they get in these numbers or. And they analyze some data. But you're saying this is what LinkedIn is telling us to do, to perform well. Yeah, because you said like 79% of small business marketers are saying video is the new language of the Internet.

[Judy Fox]

Correct. It is more of a hopeful. You have to keep that in mind when you read this report. There's a combination of past data saying that the small business creation is going up 69%. There are more people creating, especially with AI tools. There's more posts happening on the platform, there's more creation, and we have now a hopeful statement that video is the new language of the Internet. We hope it's the new language.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah. Okay, thank you for clarifying that.

[Judy Fox]

Yes. And then AI is now the number one growth lever for small businesses. And that is a great announcement to say. And they gave data. So they're saying 54% of US small business leaders saying AI is essential to their current growth. I mean, that's a big number. 76% are saying AI is helping their small business compete with the larger businesses.

[Jerry Potter]

Love that.

[Judy Fox]

So it's leveling the playing field. And they're predicting, again, this is a prediction language. AI could unlock 1.6 trillion in productive capacity for US small businesses.

[Jerry Potter]

Wow.

[Judy Fox]

That's a lot of money.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I love the part about being able to compete with bigger brands because that's something I've always tried to do. Like when I worked at an agency before I had my own business, it was kind of like, hey, look, let's try and get you on the same playing field even if you're a smaller business. Because even then, you know, this was several years ago, but even then we had these new assets that were simplifying, you know, these new tools that were simplifying graphic design and all kinds of stuff. And now obviously in the last three years, it's, you know, it's also crazy to think it's been three years since ChatGPT came out, but in the last three years, these tools are amazing. So, okay, so small business creation is exploding. AI is the number one growth lever. And what was the third thing you saw in this report that you wanted to share?

[Judy Fox]

The third one is networking. Again, back to LinkedIn. LinkedIn's excited to talk about how networking is essential to businesses in the age of AI. AI because we have AI posts, we have AI coming out on the Internet, the human connection and networking is going to become the differentiator. So they're saying 73% of small businesses are saying networking is going to be essential.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, and I think that's kind of the theme through all of this stuff. I mean, if video is the new language, you know, on the Internet, or whether they say, yeah, the new language of the Internet, that was what it was. That's also because video, even though, you know, AI video is getting crazy good. That's also because it elevates trust. It lets people feel like they know somebody so in a way that a blog post just never could. It's crazy to think of, you know, what's, what's happened with blogs. So, okay, yeah, I mean, that all certainly makes sense. Whether it's predictive or not, I think it's obviously based on strong data.

[Judy Fox]

Yes. So definitely read that report. I'm going to go through it because it does signal to your teams where you may want to put your dollars, your money, your time, your effort, next year.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, okay. All right. Another update, another AI update. LinkedIn is introducing an AI driven people search. Now, it's only for premium users and only in the US right now. But this sounds like a potential really powerful tool for prospecting, is it not? I assume people will use it for like, you know, finding job candidates as well. But talk to me about what you've seen so far about this tool.

[Judy Fox]

So the most simple way to explain this is we're taking it from exact keywords and job titles and LinkedIn is now turning it into a natural language people search. So just like we get on to these AI tools and use natural language to talk with the tool that's what LinkedIn is doing with their new people search feature. So now instead of making sure the results match exactly to the keyword and the title and you have to get it right and you have to iterate, it's going to have this natural language where even if they don't use the exact key keywords, if they can scrape someone's profile and see that it was inferred or they meant to say something similar, they're going to bring those people up in your search.

[Jerry Potter]

So in other words, before you would have had to say their exact job title, their exact experience, and now it's almost like you're sitting at a restaurant with a friend and it's like, yeah, tell me, like, who's your ideal customer? Who's your ideal client? You're like, well, they're maybe 40 to 50 and they're probably work in an executive role. That might be that kind of thing. Is that what you mean by natural language?

[Judy Fox]

Yeah, they gave some examples like now you can talk about. I'm looking for people who used to work at this company who now have become founders in healthcare in New York City.

[Jerry Potter]

Okay.

[Judy Fox]

Like that is a really specific. Like I'm trying to find somebody who used to work at maybe a startup and I want to figure out what they're doing now and are they involved in this industry. That would be so fascinating.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah. Okay, so it's available to premium users in the US right now, but obviously if it tests well, it'll continue to roll out. I don't know if it'll ever roll out to free users simply because obviously everything AI costs quite a bit of the processing money, as they say. But I can see that making a big, big difference. Can I tell you my favorite thing about AI? Just everywhere. I'm a verbal processor. So the fact that I can just blab whatever and it'll make sense of it is the best. Yeah.

[Judy Fox]

And I mean right now I will go into AI and say I'm interested in figuring out who is the competition of and put the criteria and it does it. It starts to give you more details than you would ever get from a specific title of somebody who's trying to name themselves as a title.

[Jerry Potter]

For some people, this might be the reason to upgrade to premium. I mean, if you are doing that kind of prospecting. So. All right, and then LinkedIn events, there's some new tools for promotion and targeting and measuring all around LinkedIn events. So talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing with this.

[Judy Fox]

Judy, I love that LinkedIn events is a natural extension of we want to have more networking. So LinkedIn events goes along with that and we want to have more video. So it combines both of those. The ads are going to push more people to see your event. So we're talking. They don't really give numbers, which I'm a little bit like, where are. Where is the data?

[Jerry Potter]

You like your numbers? Yeah.

[Judy Fox]

And they're just saying it's going to help marketers scale their events, get more reach and measure their events. And they're integrating with a company called On24. It's an event management and boosting of events. So I was trying to dig into it.

[Jerry Potter]

I.

[Judy Fox]

Like I said, it does seem relatively new. I would always give a shout out to AJ Wilcox as an ads expert if you have really deep questions. But right now, the number one thing I take away from this is more attendees, more registrations, and the ability to link it to your CRM or integrate it.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, well. And to go back to sort of the theme of the show today, if the theme of the show today is building trust through networking, through video, through events, events come with trust. From the social proof standpoint, I think that's something we have to factor in. If you are hosting an event and doesn't matter if it's 12 people show up or 500 people show up, every one of those other people goes, oh, there's other people here, you know, versus somebody who's hosting a video on their website and you don't know if anybody's there or not. There's no social proof. I mean, that social proof is powerful and I think it's becoming more powerful in the age of AI when we're all deciding whether we can trust people anymore.

[Judy Fox]

I love that. And my favorite saying is public conversations are going to convert to private conversations.

[Jerry Potter]

Yes. Yeah, very well put.

[Judy Fox]

Everything that you just said.

[Jerry Potter]

No, but it's true. And it goes back to what we were saying about your comments can get more visibility than your posts in some cases. Right.

[Judy Fox]

And it can build better trust. That back to the trust word. So, yes, I think the theme going into 2026 is trust.

[Jerry Potter]

One thing that people are not saying, but I think they should be, is how to use AI to build trust, because it seems sort of like sort of an oxymoron. But the more you know about AI, the more you can utilize it in your business. Just like LinkedIn had in their report, it is the number one growth lever. So a quick reminder to sign up for the free AI masterclass coming up on Tuesday, December 9th. You can go to socialmediaexaminer.com aitools socialmediaexaminer.com aITools and Judy, where can we discover more about you?

[Judy Fox]

I'm on LinkedIn. I go by Judy Fox J U D I F O X the key is the I and yeah, let's connect on LinkedIn and let's get more networking over there. We'll exchange some comments.

[Jerry Potter]

Yeah, and if you enjoy this podcast, another one to add to your listening lineup. Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast until next time. May you be wise with your marketing decisions. Thanks everyone. Bye.

[Judy Fox]

The Social Media Marketing Talk show is a Social Media examiner production. For more social media Insight, visit social mediaexaminer.com.

[Social Media Marketing World Announcer]

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